Hi David - as I live in NZ - I have used these 2 products in combination for 2 brews now - and my experience has been very good. The one gotcha that users should be aware of is that it may be worth calibrating the temperature on both devices - while my pill was pretty close - the controller was +3 degrees C out. I have set the controller to wifi and paired the Pill to Bluetooth (in plastic férmenter in fridge) setting the telemetry on both to 15 minutes - but can see that reducing that time even more may be of benefit - for those wondering - my fully charged Pill using Bluetooth has dropped just 1% to 99% in nearly 3 months - so no sending more data isn't an issue. Finally I would say watching it all through the rapt portal is pretty compulsive viewing. Happy brewing and thanks for your efforts
100% agree on calibrating. I've got the pill set to Bluetooth transmission, 1 minute interval, and it gets through a several week brew with 90+% battery left. The paired temp controller is on wifi and is responsible for the more energy consuming transmission to the Rapt cloud.
Yes, I calibrate everything straight away, just to be sure. I think this should be an advised standard. Yes, battery life is very good for sure. Thats for the information 🍻🍻
Thanks heaps for this video. This type of Bluetooth bridge functionality is quite new to home brewers and I think this really helps to educate new customers of this new cool feature. We have some new firmware that is available soon that further increases the functionality so the pill hydrometer will average several hundred readings and determine the fermentation velocity (stated as "gravity points/day" units). This new feature will finally give us more ability to automate the fermentation process to maintain a fermentation activity.
Happy New Year David and many thanks for this great video. This looks like the best set up to me and not expensive either. I look forward to these reaching Europe!
Too bad Kegland stuff is pretty hard to get in Europe. I've been trying to get the 8L PET kegs in the Netherlands for some time, which proves very hard.
below 100€, remote access via rapt, and reactive control ... my controller is in the mail. A clear case of "take my money" if you ask me. I am brewing remote, meaning I can't access my fermenter 10 days after my brewday. I had to rely on my inkbird and predict my gravity curve, unable to intervene in case something goes of. This controller is just what I needed. Thanks David for the review!
Hi David, You're video was very informative, as usual, for the Rapt Pill. I ordered two (yellow & blue) for use here in the United States from an Ebay site in Australia since we can't get them locally here. The problem my brew partner and I are having is that we pressure ferment multiple different batches simultaneously in Corny Kegs (all similar styles of beer with different yeast strains that all have fermentation temperatures that are within the same/overlapping temperature ranges) and place them all in a fermentation chamber (Chest freezer with an Inkbird). We have excellent wifi signal by the chest freezer but the Rapt Pills don't seem to be broadcasting through the Corny Kegs and Chest Freezer because the Rapt Pills are synced to the Rapt Portal and send data just fine outside the fermentation vessels but we get nothing once they're placed inside. We are going to try to rectify this with either a wifi repeater or possibly by purchasing a Rapt Temperature Controller. We don't need the temp controller to control the fermentation temp for the freezer we just want to sync multiple Rapt Pills to it via Bluetooth to relay the data to the Portal. Can you connect multiple Rapt Pills to/thru a Rapt temperature controller? I haven't found any definitive data on any websites that speak to this issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm also going to e-mail Kegland if I can find an e-mail address for them for technical support. Thanks for any assistance that you may be able to provide.
Great to hear. Yes a wifi repeater/extender could for sure help or an unused tablet or phone placed close using Bluetooth. Yes, you can connect multiple pills to the temp controller too. I hope this helps 🍻🍻
Great overview! Looking forward to getting a few more batches out of mine. As of now it just kept reminding me that I couldn't reach a warm ferm temp! Great to know with the email and audio alerts!
I was really impressed by the mounting options when mine was delivered. I pulled it apart and reconfigured it so that it stands up rather than the default layout. It's important to note that the temperature ramping by gravity feature is not yet released.
Thanks always for the informative videos David, I've just started out with the RAPT temperature controller for a spirits wash, I am yet to use it for beer as I still have a few pieces of equipment that I need to get (the pill 💊 being one of them) I decided to use it with the spirits wash just to start off with learning how to use it and gain some sort of experience, I don't know if it's as critical with a sugar wash but I'm hoping it will help to produce very good results as opposed to leaving it at ambient temperature. It has been very warm during the week here in Western Australia so it probably would have stressed the yeast a bit. When I get my first batch of beer on the way I will be sure to review your video again 👍 Happy brewing!
Thanks for the video on the controller, are you able to show how to setup the profile you talked about at the start of the video? Adjusting temperature based on the gravity reading.
With all the innovations Kegland has made over the year, plus the very reasonable prices, just about every aspect of my brewing uses their products. I can't wait to get my hands on this controller and the Pill. My only complaint is I for the life of me can't figure how to get out of the graph screen on my Brewzilla gen 4.
Great video David, I guess you need either an old fridge or a rapt fridge to create and run a profile which involves fermentation into cold crash? I have been using my pill, linked into Brewfather, works really well
@David Heath Homebrew thank you, David. I have one on the way for my Fermzilla I opened a small homebrew store in Texas, and I'm really enjoying using and selling Kegland stuff now. It's just fun looking, and guys' faces kind of light up when you build a Duotight manifold outta spare parts like Legos for BoozeHounds. Or when they see that your temp controller, thermometer, and brewing machine can all talk to each other.
Hello from Canada Dave. Thanks for the great video. I’m currently using this same setup…have a lager brewing now as the first brew to test it out. I’d like to further tweak the settings though to get as accurate as possible and try to eliminate overshoots, do you any suggestions for how to setup the PID settings on the controller? There’s some great videos for setting up the PID on the gen 4 Brewzilla but I can’t really find anything for the controller.
Can this be used in conjunction with the Bluetooth probe thermometer in distillation? In kegkands alcoengine reflux, they say that distillation is done once it raises by 1°c. I’m thinking that once the temp is stable and distillation begins, simply set the temp to +1°c, that way once it hits that temp, it’s turns off
Help! I have just upgraded to this temp controller paired to my rapt pill. I downloaded the pale ale profile which I am running. The cooling is working fine but it is not heating using the heat belt. I have checked obvious things like the heating check box, which is enabled, but it is only cooling and not heating. What settings could be the issue? I am not too concerned at the min, but in a few days when temp needs to ramp up then this will be an issue. Any ideas?
Have you checked the heat belt? As long as heating is enabled it should work. Try plugging something else like a light into the heat socket to check that it works too.
Hej David! Thanks for another great review! Do you know if the pill can reach the rapt controller throug a stainless Steel kegmenter, that is placed in a freezer, While the controller hangs outside the freezer, as you then have same setup as you would with inkbird WiFi controller, just with the benefit of not using a Phone ontop of the kegmenter ?😊
Hi Nokkas, Thank you. Ive not had issues myself personally but I guess it depends on how thick the walls are and if the area has limited interference. I think in most cases its not going to be an issue.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew but have you tried with kegmenter inside a frigde/freezer with the controller outside, so the pill is going through both kegmenter and freezer? :-)
@@DavidHeathHomebrew could be Nice if you could test it, you do have both controller, pill, kegmenter and freeezer😅👍🍻 we are maney Who would benefit from that knowlage!🙏🎉
I'd be a lot more interested if the temp controller/rapt portal supported other floating hydrometers like the tilt and the iSpindel. I'm sure it's a higher priority to support their own devices and eco system, but I have already invested in Cloud enabled Inkbird controllers and tilt hydrometers, and not seeing any features that make me want to upgrade at this point. If the temp controller could take input from the floating hydrometer to adjust temperature changes as well as a probe, that might be a reason to switch. It's typical for me in some instances to see a few degrees temp difference from the temp probe in the thermowell vs the temp at the top of the beer from my tilt.
Can't say i'm too impressed with the RAPT pill. By modern "plug and play" standards it is too complicated to set up and even after struggling through the set up pre-brew, it won't then remember and automatically connect to my phone to give me a gravity reading. Having tried it a couple of times, i've given up.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Thanks I was able to sign up to the rapt page and I see in there is "increase or decrease over a duration" step. Can't be upsetting lager with sudden changes in temp!
You can set an infinite amount temps in a profile to run for the time you require before moving to the next temperature, which can be up or down. This is basics though really.
Hi David as I own a RAPT Pill and am searching for a Temperaturcontroll for my induction heating Unit (I thought of the Bierbotbrick before watching your Video) I have to buy the RAPT Temperatur Control I have Just one Question. What diameter has the temperature Sensor? Thanks Ingo
Hi David - as I live in NZ - I have used these 2 products in combination for 2 brews now - and my experience has been very good. The one gotcha that users should be aware of is that it may be worth calibrating the temperature on both devices - while my pill was pretty close - the controller was +3 degrees C out. I have set the controller to wifi and paired the Pill to Bluetooth (in plastic férmenter in fridge) setting the telemetry on both to 15 minutes - but can see that reducing that time even more may be of benefit - for those wondering - my fully charged Pill using Bluetooth has dropped just 1% to 99% in nearly 3 months - so no sending more data isn't an issue. Finally I would say watching it all through the rapt portal is pretty compulsive viewing. Happy brewing and thanks for your efforts
100% agree on calibrating. I've got the pill set to Bluetooth transmission, 1 minute interval, and it gets through a several week brew with 90+% battery left. The paired temp controller is on wifi and is responsible for the more energy consuming transmission to the Rapt cloud.
Yes, I calibrate everything straight away, just to be sure. I think this should be an advised standard. Yes, battery life is very good for sure. Thats for the information 🍻🍻
Thanks heaps for this video. This type of Bluetooth bridge functionality is quite new to home brewers and I think this really helps to educate new customers of this new cool feature.
We have some new firmware that is available soon that further increases the functionality so the pill hydrometer will average several hundred readings and determine the fermentation velocity (stated as "gravity points/day" units). This new feature will finally give us more ability to automate the fermentation process to maintain a fermentation activity.
Cheers guys 🍻🍻🍻
@kegland When do you think the gravity based profiles will be available like we see in the video?
Happy New Year David and many thanks for this great video. This looks like the best set up to me and not expensive either. I look forward to these reaching Europe!
Cheers Alan. Happy new year! Yes, I think this is very impressive.
Too bad Kegland stuff is pretty hard to get in Europe. I've been trying to get the 8L PET kegs in the Netherlands for some time, which proves very hard.
Try Unibrew, I know they stock Kegland. The Oxibar kegs tend to sell out fast, so worth reserving those.
below 100€, remote access via rapt, and reactive control ... my controller is in the mail. A clear case of "take my money" if you ask me.
I am brewing remote, meaning I can't access my fermenter 10 days after my brewday. I had to rely on my inkbird and predict my gravity curve, unable to intervene in case something goes of.
This controller is just what I needed. Thanks David for the review!
Cheers Robert. Yes this is really a no brainer as I see it. Super useful and innovative.
Hi David,
You're video was very informative, as usual, for the Rapt Pill. I ordered two (yellow & blue) for use here in the United States from an Ebay site in Australia since we can't get them locally here. The problem my brew partner and I are having is that we pressure ferment multiple different batches simultaneously in Corny Kegs (all similar styles of beer with different yeast strains that all have fermentation temperatures that are within the same/overlapping temperature ranges) and place them all in a fermentation chamber (Chest freezer with an Inkbird). We have excellent wifi signal by the chest freezer but the Rapt Pills don't seem to be broadcasting through the Corny Kegs and Chest Freezer because the Rapt Pills are synced to the Rapt Portal and send data just fine outside the fermentation vessels but we get nothing once they're placed inside. We are going to try to rectify this with either a wifi repeater or possibly by purchasing a Rapt Temperature Controller. We don't need the temp controller to control the fermentation temp for the freezer we just want to sync multiple Rapt Pills to it via Bluetooth to relay the data to the Portal. Can you connect multiple Rapt Pills to/thru a Rapt temperature controller? I haven't found any definitive data on any websites that speak to this issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm also going to e-mail Kegland if I can find an e-mail address for them for technical support. Thanks for any assistance that you may be able to provide.
Great to hear. Yes a wifi repeater/extender could for sure help or an unused tablet or phone placed close using Bluetooth. Yes, you can connect multiple pills to the temp controller too. I hope this helps 🍻🍻
Happy New Year David Excellent start, looking forward to seeing what new toys will be available this season cheers
Happy new year Paul. Glad you enjoyed it, plenty more coming for sure.
Great overview! Looking forward to getting a few more batches out of mine. As of now it just kept reminding me that I couldn't reach a warm ferm temp! Great to know with the email and audio alerts!
Great to hear, thank you. Enjoy 🍻🍻🍻
I was really impressed by the mounting options when mine was delivered. I pulled it apart and reconfigured it so that it stands up rather than the default layout.
It's important to note that the temperature ramping by gravity feature is not yet released.
Great 🍻🍻🍻
Thanks always for the informative videos David, I've just started out with the RAPT temperature controller for a spirits wash, I am yet to use it for beer as I still have a few pieces of equipment that I need to get (the pill 💊 being one of them)
I decided to use it with the spirits wash just to start off with learning how to use it and gain some sort of experience, I don't know if it's as critical with a sugar wash but I'm hoping it will help to produce very good results as opposed to leaving it at ambient temperature. It has been very warm during the week here in Western Australia so it probably would have stressed the yeast a bit.
When I get my first batch of beer on the way I will be sure to review your video again 👍
Happy brewing!
Awesome, thanks Geoff. So many applications for this and the level of control sets it apart for sure. 🍻🍻🍻
Happy New Yaar David 😊
Indeed interesting it made like I spoke abut so time back 😊
Thanks for the information 👍👍👍
Cheers Allan, happy new year 🍻🍻🍻
Thanks for the video on the controller, are you able to show how to setup the profile you talked about at the start of the video? Adjusting temperature based on the gravity reading.
Thanks James. I am considering a tutorial for RAPT in general, which could include this.
With all the innovations Kegland has made over the year, plus the very reasonable prices, just about every aspect of my brewing uses their products. I can't wait to get my hands on this controller and the Pill. My only complaint is I for the life of me can't figure how to get out of the graph screen on my Brewzilla gen 4.
Great. The graph option can be found by going into the Rapt controller and triggering “Show graph”
Great video David, I guess you need either an old fridge or a rapt fridge to create and run a profile which involves fermentation into cold crash?
I have been using my pill, linked into Brewfather, works really well
Thanks Andy. There are other options. I use a glycol chiller personally.
This looks great. What diameter is the Temperature sensor?
Hey, sorry for the late reply, I wanted to hear back on this from KL before answering. The diameter is 4mm confirmed.
The controller can only handle 1 brew at a time, right?
Thank you, David!
Yes, that is correct 🍻🍻🍻
@David Heath Homebrew thank you, David. I have one on the way for my Fermzilla
I opened a small homebrew store in Texas, and I'm really enjoying using and selling Kegland stuff now. It's just fun looking, and guys' faces kind of light up when you build a Duotight manifold outta spare parts like Legos for BoozeHounds. Or when they see that your temp controller, thermometer, and brewing machine can all talk to each other.
Great to hear. Yes KL are certainly a hugely valued supplier for us in the trade. Great pricing, big selection that keeps growing regularly.
Hello from Canada Dave. Thanks for the great video. I’m currently using this same setup…have a lager brewing now as the first brew to test it out. I’d like to further tweak the settings though to get as accurate as possible and try to eliminate overshoots, do you any suggestions for how to setup the PID settings on the controller? There’s some great videos for setting up the PID on the gen 4 Brewzilla but I can’t really find anything for the controller.
Hey Kona and thank you. My guide for tweaking pid will work just the same for this.
Use it in a brewing system at the temp range you need.
Can this be used in conjunction with the Bluetooth probe thermometer in distillation?
In kegkands alcoengine reflux, they say that distillation is done once it raises by 1°c.
I’m thinking that once the temp is stable and distillation begins, simply set the temp to +1°c, that way once it hits that temp, it’s turns off
Hi, Sorry. But I am not versed on any of these products when it comes to distilling. I would suggest emailing Kegland on this question.
Can you use this without internet? And is it as simple for setting Temperature for fermenters? Plug in temperature probe set temperature, press play.
Yes you can but naturally it will limit certain functions. It is very simple to use for sure 🍻😎🍻
Help! I have just upgraded to this temp controller paired to my rapt pill. I downloaded the pale ale profile which I am running. The cooling is working fine but it is not heating using the heat belt. I have checked obvious things like the heating check box, which is enabled, but it is only cooling and not heating. What settings could be the issue?
I am not too concerned at the min, but in a few days when temp needs to ramp up then this will be an issue. Any ideas?
Have you checked the heat belt? As long as heating is enabled it should work. Try plugging something else like a light into the heat socket to check that it works too.
Hej David!
Thanks for another great review!
Do you know if the pill can reach the rapt controller throug a stainless Steel kegmenter, that is placed in a freezer, While the controller hangs outside the freezer, as you then have same setup as you would with inkbird WiFi controller, just with the benefit of not using a Phone ontop of the kegmenter ?😊
Hi Nokkas,
Thank you.
Ive not had issues myself personally but I guess it depends on how thick the walls are and if the area has limited interference.
I think in most cases its not going to be an issue.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew but have you tried with kegmenter inside a frigde/freezer with the controller outside, so the pill is going through both kegmenter and freezer? :-)
No, I have not. Kegmenter is very thick and will benefit from the extra strong add on for Pill that is coming this year.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew could be Nice if you could test it, you do have both controller, pill, kegmenter and freeezer😅👍🍻 we are maney Who would benefit from that knowlage!🙏🎉
At this point I do not have a suitable fridge to test it with sadly.
I'd be a lot more interested if the temp controller/rapt portal supported other floating hydrometers like the tilt and the iSpindel. I'm sure it's a higher priority to support their own devices and eco system, but I have already invested in Cloud enabled Inkbird controllers and tilt hydrometers, and not seeing any features that make me want to upgrade at this point. If the temp controller could take input from the floating hydrometer to adjust temperature changes as well as a probe, that might be a reason to switch. It's typical for me in some instances to see a few degrees temp difference from the temp probe in the thermowell vs the temp at the top of the beer from my tilt.
Yeah thats not likely. Most brands do not offer this and getting this would cost them quite a bit of money too.
Any idea when a unit will be available in North America?
I picked one up about a month ago here in Canada from BrewHQ.
Anytime now or soon Jim.
Ali Express has them from the official Kegland store
@@davidm3997 Alas, but not the ones for US electrical connections
Speak with More Beer, they should be able to give you an ETA.
It would be nice to have the option to turn off the display screen. It's kinda bright .
Im sure that would be an easy feature to add.
Wonder how the WiFi is. I have brewzilla gen4 I can’t even use the WiFi. Kegland went over stuff and said my unit was fine
Hi Travis, you probably need a wifi extender. They are not so expensive.
Can't say i'm too impressed with the RAPT pill. By modern "plug and play" standards it is too complicated to set up and even after struggling through the set up pre-brew, it won't then remember and automatically connect to my phone to give me a gravity reading. Having tried it a couple of times, i've given up.
That is odd. I would suggest reaching out to where you bought it. Hopefully they can solve it.
Can it ramp temperatures? It's not the best then.
Sure it can. You can create very complex profiles of various types.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew I see the profiles where you can set up changes in temp but I don't see ramping anywhere.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Thanks I was able to sign up to the rapt page and I see in there is "increase or decrease over a duration" step. Can't be upsetting lager with sudden changes in temp!
You can set an infinite amount temps in a profile to run for the time you require before moving to the next temperature, which can be up or down. This is basics though really.
Hi David as I own a RAPT Pill and am searching for a Temperaturcontroll for my induction heating Unit (I thought of the Bierbotbrick before watching your Video) I have to buy the RAPT Temperatur Control I have Just one Question. What diameter has the temperature Sensor?
Thanks Ingo
So it monitors temp and specific gravity
Watch the video and it explains everything 🍻🍻
Ok. Got it. I watched again. Very nice
@@DavidHeathHomebrew i didn’t realise the rapt pill already monitors both temp and gravity. I thought it was just gravity.
Great 🍻🍻🍻
Sure does 🍻